Snubs and Surprises Among the Oscar Nominations

Lincoln leads the pack of nominees for the 85th annual Academy Awards.

BY Christopher Rudolph

January 10 2013 10:25 AM ETUPDATED:January 10 2013 3:22 PM ET

This morning a lively Seth MacFarlane and Emma Stone announced the nominations for the 85th Annual Academy Awards, and while there were some shoo-ins seen from a red carpet mile, there were surprising snubs that had the crowd of press clutching their pearls.

Lincoln (from gay screenwriter Tony Kushner) leads the pack with 12 nominations; director Steven Spielberg was nominated for Best Director to coincide with his Lincoln Best Picture nomination. Other filmmakers that were seen as locks, such as Ben Affleck, Tom Hooper, and Kathryn Bigelow, were left out in the cold even though their respective films were all nominated for Best Picture.

The newest PFLAG mom, Sally Field (Lincoln), and marriage equality activist Anne Hathaway (Les Misérables)will battle it out for Best Supporting Actress along with Jacki Weaver (Silver Linings Playbook), Helen Hunt (The Sessions), and Amy Adams (The Master). The most groundbreaking category this year will be Best Actress, which has both the oldest (Emmanuelle Riva) and youngest (Quvenzhané Wallis) nominees in Academy history, vying for gold with front-runners Jennifer Lawrence and Jessica Chastain.

In the Feature Documentary category, the powerful AIDS documentary How to Survive a Plague was nominated, and in the Animated Feature category a nom went to ParaNorman, which was directed by out co-creator Chris Butler and features a lead gay character, a first for an animated film.

While Tom Hooper was shut out, Hugh Jackman was nominated for his transformative role in Les Misérables, and Kushner is nominated for his first screenplay, for Lincoln (LGBT viewerscan most likely look forward to a shout-out to his husband as he accepts his award on Oscar night).

The awards will be presented in Hollywood February 24. The full list of nominees:

Performance by an actor in a supporting role* Alan Arkin in "Argo"* Robert De Niro in "Silver Linings Playbook"* Philip Seymour Hoffman in "The Master"* Tommy Lee Jones in "Lincoln"* Christoph Waltz in "Django Unchained"

Performance by an actress in a leading role* Jessica Chastain in "Zero Dark Thirty"* Jennifer Lawrence in "Silver Linings Playbook"* Emmanuelle Riva in "Amour"* Quvenzhané Wallis in "Beasts of the Southern Wild"* Naomi Watts in "The Impossible"

Performance by an actress in a supporting role* Amy Adams in "The Master"* Sally Field in "Lincoln"* Anne Hathaway in "Les Misérables"* Helen Hunt in "The Sessions"* Jacki Weaver in "Silver Linings Playbook"

Best documentary feature* "5 Broken Cameras" Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi* "The Gatekeepers" Nominees to be determined* "How to Survive a Plague" Nominees to be determined* "The Invisible War" Nominees to be determined* "Searching for Sugar Man" Nominees to be determined

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)* "Before My Time" from "Chasing Ice"Music and Lyric by J. Ralph* "Everybody Needs A Best Friend" from "Ted"Music by Walter Murphy; Lyric by Seth MacFarlane* "Pi's Lullaby" from "Life of Pi"Music by Mychael Danna; Lyric by Bombay Jayashri* "Skyfall" from "Skyfall"Music and Lyric by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth* "Suddenly" from "Les Misérables"Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg; Lyric by Herbert Kretzmer and Alain Boublil

Best Original Screenplay* "Amour" Written by Michael Haneke* "Django Unchained" Written by Quentin Tarantino* "Flight" Written by John Gatins* "Moonrise Kingdom" Written by Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola* "Zero Dark Thirty" Written by Mark Boal